Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-01-17
fConfi.xed from Wednesday, Jan. 49,
LITTLE TU'PENNY.
BY S. Barring GOULD.
CHAPTER V.
HOW SHE WAS SPOILED.

TIE incidents recorded in the last chap
ter were the beginning Of q friendly in
timacy between ice and Little Tu'penny.
Indeed. Joe was the only person from
whom Hiss Triptolcma Yellowleaf Red
fern would endure to be called by this
nickname.
1t was a curious fact that Joe, so re-
served and unsociable with his fellows,
unbent to the girl. He did not grudge
talk with her, or the time spent in her So
ciety; he learned even to smile at her
odd and audacious remarks. He even
encouraged her TO visit the mill He
knew that she got harm at home He
knew that she had alienated the girls of
her own age, her former associates, by
her conceit, and he hoped to be able to
supply some little check to the mischief
which was going on. When the sails
were in full swing, and Trip was being
made giddy, he had put on the drag and
saved her; perhaps now he might do
something Of the sort morally. ! do not
know that he thought this all out for
himself. but a dim sense Of pity for the
child flied him, and desire to befriend
and better her was like a warm spark in
his heart.
One evening his mother said to him, in
reference TO Trip, who had been into the
cottage TO beg for bread and honey. 1T
is Il bad lookout for the little lass. With
a careless father and foolish mother,
she will go utterly to the bad in the end.
/ see it all before me. 1t cannot be other.
AS you bend plant so it will grow.
What are you signing about, Joes"
'Sighing, mother? I'm blowing the
flower out Of my lungs"
=
amiabic frame Of mind when the girl np-
peared in the mill door, a lovely appari-
ton dark against the brilliant sky be-
hind, standing on one leg with n hand
on each doorpost, looking in and sin 5ing
His gray eyes rested on the graceful
figure. The face was in shadow because
sunlit white cloud was behind it, and
he blew the flour again out of his lungs.
She continued warbling, standing on
one leg.
IiushN' said Joe, starting TO the
stairs There is the bell ringing; the
hopper is empty"
When Joe had gone aloft, Trip pro-
duced her whistle and piped. He did not
come down till he lad filled the hopper.
Then he descended leisurely He found
the girl seated on flour sack, pouting.
"1ou care for the hopper more than
for me, - she said; when the hopper
rings you run up to it, when | whistle
you will not come to me-
because | am really needed at the
hopper; as | have already told YOU
when you really need me, will come to
you"
"If whistler"
"Without your whistle. When you
were flying or rather falling you did not
call me, but came
eyes at--the right moment, dear joe"
She sat on the sack, thinking, with her
finger on the dimple in her check, and he
looked at her, not without sadness on his
brow
All at once she Frightened turned her
dark eyes on him, and said: miller
Joe, you are going to let this sack down
into the basement. 1t is on the trap.
Give me n ride down"
He shook his head. He took her hand
and lifted her from the sack, and made
her stand on one side.
''Run down, little woman, below The
sack, it is true, is going to be let by tho
trap into the basement. but never, and in
no way, will | let you down Go below
and stand on the trap, and when tho
sack is removed will haul you up"
She went ont at the door, ran down the
steps, and presently he saw her through
the hole in the roof of the weighing house
and floor of the -four chamber, holding
the chain of the lift, and looking up. lie
hcaved, and up she came, with bright,
uplitted face and flutterng white hair
and smiles in her dancing eyes. Then
he knclt put out both his hands and
lifted her on to the floor and closed the
trap.
so, Little Tupennyr' he said "Ncver
down; too many who know no better are
doing that with you; | will always put
out my hands and help you up"
But she understood nothing of his
meaning. How should she? She was
but II child.